


The Mummy

by Thealmostrhetoricalquestion



Category: Shadowhunters (TV), The Shadowhunter Chronicles - All Media Types, The Shadowhunter Chronicles - Cassandra Clare
Genre: Action/Adventure, Alternate Universe - The Mummy Fusion, Drama, Fluff and Humor, Librarian Alec, M/M, Not Canon Compliant, Romance, The Mummy AU
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-03-02
Updated: 2018-03-12
Packaged: 2019-03-26 03:48:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,515
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13849446
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Thealmostrhetoricalquestion/pseuds/Thealmostrhetoricalquestion
Summary: Alec never thought that a map to the City of the Dead, his sister, and a roguish man he found in a prison cell would spark the beginning of the most harrowing adventure of his life. He also never thought he'd fall in love. Which goes to show that sometimes he should listen to Izzy when she accuses him of thinking too much.“City of the Dead, yes, that’s the one,” the man says, clicking his fingers. “Seti’s place, I believe. Funny old place, that. Wouldn’t recommend it to a friend, but I’ve definitely seen worse.”“You really have been there,” Alec says breathlessly. He grins, and the man’s eyes flicker down to his mouth for a second, before returning to meet Alec’s gaze.





	1. The Map to Hamunaptra

**Author's Note:**

> Oh, look, another fic! I just... really liked the idea? I also saw it on one of Lecrit's 'works she'd like to see' things, and I thought it would be fun. If there's already something like this out there then please link me! And I'll add characters/tags as I go. Thank you!

“Coffins are no place for the living.”

Alec doesn’t see what’s funny about hiding in a coffin in a darkened artefact room with the remains of a skeleton, and jumping out just in time to scare the absolute hell out of him. Izzy and he share many things; a family, a thirst for knowledge, a hunger for discovery, but _not,_ apparently, a sense of humour. He watches disapprovingly as Izzy wiggles the dead finger-bones in his direction before hopping out of the coffin, brushing dust off her skirt. 

“You know, I’m not going to argue with you," she says airily. "Those things aren’t comfortable in the slightest." 

Izzy trips forward to kiss him on the cheek, smashing her glossy lips against his skin. Alec steadies her with a scowl. He’s not in the mood, not today. He just accidentally wrecked the library whilst trying to put a book back on its’ proper shelf – and _really,_ why nobody can seem to understand the system he’s been trying to put in place for over ten months now is beyond him.

“That wasn’t exactly the point, Iz.” Alec sighs and sits down at the base of a statue. He shouldn’t technically be sat down at all, not with all the work he has to do now, but especially not near an ancient, ragged statue that could crumble at any moment. 

“Something’s wrong,” Izzy says, ever the observant Lightwood. Frowning down at him, she leans forward to stick two fingers in either side of his mouth and tug, contorting his lips into a mockery of a smile. “You’re even grumpier than usual.”

Alec bats her hands away, uncomfortably aware that she was just touching a skeleton. 

“The Scholars rejected my application again,” he says. “And I just ruined a lot of hard work that’s going to take me months to rebuild, and the Curator is irritated again. I think he said something about only putting up with me because of Mom and Dad’s influence.” Alec pretends to think for a moment. “Oh, and that a plague of locusts would be more welcome than me at the moment.”  

“Yes, well, he’s a dick,” Izzy says firmly. It’s untrue, but it makes Alec feel a bit better. “And those stuffy old men don’t know what they’re doing, rejecting you. You’re the brightest mind around, and you know it.”

Alec hums, unconvinced, leaning back against the statue. A tired sigh escapes him, and Izzy’s frown deepens.

“Look, I’ve got something that might cheer you up,” she says, forcing a smile onto her face. It gradually becomes more of a genuine, excited grin as she turns to rummage around in the coffin. Her voice echoes as she ducks down to converse with the skeleton, shifting it around. “Excuse me, don’t mind me, just looking for something.”

Alec cringes at the clack of bones. Izzy’s never quite had the same reaction or relationship regarding death as Alec does. She’s always very cheerfully dismissive of it and almost fascinated by it, as evidenced by the way the skeleton is currently flailing around.

“If this is another piece of old dirt that you found on a dig, you’ll forgive me if I don’t act too impressed. I left my expression of awe at home today.” 

Izzy whips around to scowl at him, her hair flying around like gauzy curtain caught on a windy day. In her hand is a small hexagonal box, and she holds it out with a reverence that she usually reserves for their little brother, Max. 

“What is that?” Alec straightens up and pulls a pair of wiry spectacles from his pocket, placing them on the end of his nose and ignoring Izzy’s fond smirk. He knows they look ridiculous, but he values being able to _see_ over good looks. And it’s not as though he has to wear them all the time, so nobody attractive should ever have to see him in them. 

“I was hoping you might be able to tell me,” Izzy says, settling on the ground beside him. Alec slides off the statue and sits down next to her, eyes fixed on the box. The floor is thick with a layer of dust, but neither of them care. “I was down in Thebes, and I dug it up.”

Alec chews his lip slowly as he examines the box. The heavy dark wood has an array of glyphs engraved into the sides, and something etched into the top. 

“You know, I’ve never found anything before,” Izzy says quietly. “Not anything of real value. I’ve taken part in so many digs and yet I’ve never made a single discovery beyond the odd, worthless trinket. Please, Alec, tell me I’ve found something.”

Her voice is soft, a vulnerable warble threaded through it, and yet it echoes nonetheless around the stone walls. She sounds so desperate. Alec can understand it, to an extent. Izzy is perhaps the smartest person Alec knows. His knowledge is more specialised to Ancient Egypt, a subject he loves and delights in, but Izzy is smart all over the place, clever about the tiniest things, worldly and brave in what she knows. 

And yet nobody sees it. They see a girl - not a woman - who likes to have fun, a girl without a clear path, and they label her in their minds. Alec doesn’t have that problem. He’s lucky, in a way. He can hide away in his library, with his books and scrolls and texts, and immerse himself in a world long-since gone, and nobody minds. He wants, desperately, for Izzy to have found something, so that he can put a smile on her face, and from the looks of the artefact in her hands, he might be in luck. 

He takes it from her gently, and runs his fingers over the seams and hitches in the wood. One finger presses against a small, hardly noticeable indent near the lip of the top, and the box pops open with a soft snick, revealing a worn, weathered piece of yellowing parchment, folded into a loose square. 

“You know, Izzy,” Alec says, in the silence that follows. “I really think you might have found something here. Come on, let’s go and see the Curator.”

*

“You told me that you found this in Thebes, not in a Cairo prison,” Alec hisses, skirting around the edge of an armed gentlemen. “On a dig, you said. You never said anything about a prison.”

“I lied,” Izzy says without a hint of shame, waving one hand and tucking the other under Alec’s arm. She looks quite at home here, among the criminals and guards, which isn’t a fact that Alec likes, or wants to think about. Dirty air stifles his sinuses, and there’s a distinct, pungent scent coming from the huge pots of soup on the burners in one corner. 

Alec snorts. “Yeah, I gathered."

“I lie to most people, Alec. It's not as if I singled you out.” Izzy throws him a charming grin that doesn't fool him in the slightest. “And I didn’t find it here, technically. I stole it from a drunk guy elsewhere, who now happens to be here."

“As do we,” Alec says, tightening his grip on Izzy in case she tries to abandon him. Not that she would, not really, unless he wasn’t in danger and she thought it would be funny. 

“We need to find out as much about the map as possible,” Izzy says. “This man is the best one for the job, considering he had the damn thing in the first place. Are you sure it leads to Hamunaptra?”

Alec makes an irritated noise, pausing in the middle of the prison. “I explained, didn’t I? The cartouche on the map is the official royal seal of Seti the first, who supposedly was the wealthiest pharaoh of them.”

“Yes, yes, second pharaoh of the eighteenth dynasty-”

“Nineteenth,” Alec corrects her absently. “The map’s over three thousand years old. And there’s the hieratic on the map, the one that means Hamunaptra, which is pretty much all you can hope for when it comes to these old myths.”

“Look, I’m all for a City filled with the wealth of Egypt,” Izzy says eagerly, turning to face him. “Even if it is the City of the dead, and even if it is supposed to be protected by a curse of the mummy. I’m even willing to risk it being rigged. I just don’t want to drag you out of your library and make you traipse all over the place for something that doesn’t actually exist. Although you could do with a little sunshine, if you ask me.”

“Which I didn’t,” Alec says, rolling his eyes. “And look, the City did exist, according to my research. I doubt it was full of curses and the dead, but it genuinely could have existed. And this map is as close to finding it as we’re ever going to get, so let’s just meet this man and get it over with.”

With that, he turns to the man leading them towards the row of cells at the other end of the prison. Raphael, he was called, and very clearly he isn’t a man who was born to Egypt, quite like Alec and Izzy. He cuts an imposing figure, barely squinting in the bright sunshine, and he watches them like a hawk as they draw closer. 

“What was he brought in for?” Alec asks, jerking his head at the empty cell. 

Raphael smiles benignly. “I wasn’t told. I did ask him, of course, when I heard you were coming in.”

“Did he tell you?” Izzy asks.  

Raphael’s sigh is likely audible from outer space. “I believe he said that he was looking for a good time.”

The door inside the cell clangs open, and a roguish man flings himself through, laughing loudly. Raphael backs away from the bars, rolling his eyes, as several guards escort the man in, armed to the teeth, their faces set in unimpressed, stony glares. He’s tall, with very nicely shaped arms, and his clothes are tattered and dirty, but well-fitting and clearly expensive, as if he’d been rolling around on the floor in his finery. 

His dark hair is in disarray as he swings round, somehow not falling over, and narrows his gaze at Alec and Izzy. Alec regards him warily. He’s not sure if the man is drunk, crazed, or just plain old pissed off, but neither one seems like a good reason to get any closer. 

“You stole the map from _him?"_ Alec mutters, elbowing Izzy in the side. Izzy shushes him, but the damage is done. The man's gaze sharpens. He stalks up to the bars and leans against them casually - or rather, it _looks_ casual at a first glance, but there is an unmistakable undercurrent of danger in the curve of his relaxed shoulders that sends a shiver up Alec’s spine. 

“Would you mind blessing me with your names?” the man asks, with a winning smile. Raphael snorts delicately, and the man spares him a baleful glare, before turning the smile up a fraction. 

“I have better things to do than watch this mess evolve,” Raphael says. “Come and find me when you’ve finished here.”

He sweeps past them. Alec takes a wary step closer to the cell. “My name is Alec, and this is Isabelle, my sister. We… found something of yours. A puzzle box. I was hoping you could tell us about it.”

“Oh no, my dear, that’s not what you were hoping at all,” the man says, drumming his fingers against the bars. He almost looks bored now, his gaze drifting to the side. “You’ve come to ask about the contents, about the map. About Hamunaptra.”

“You can read the map?” Alec asks incredulously. He creeps even closer, leaving Izzy behind now, and lowers his voice. 

“Not at all,” the man says cheerily. “But Hamunaptra is where I was when I found the box, so I’m assuming that’s where the map leads, ultimately. I could be wrong, of course, but judging by the look on your face, I’m assuming I’m correct.”

He gives another one of those slightly too-bright smiles, and Alec finds himself walking closer again. 

Izzy mutters something unfavourable in the background, and the man flicks his gaze to her, eyes narrowed suspiciously. 

“I could swear that I know her from somewhere,” the man murmurs. 

“She has a very familiar sort of face,” Alec says hastily. The man raises his eyes to look at Alec, amused, as Alec presses himself against the bars. “You genuinely found this at Hamunaptra? You were there, in the City?”

“City of the Dead, yes, that’s the one,” the man says, clicking his fingers. “Seti’s place, I believe. Funny old place, that. Wouldn’t recommend it to a friend, but I’ve definitely seen worse.”

“You really have been there,” Alec says breathlessly. He grins, and the man’s eyes flicker down to his mouth for a second, before returning to meet Alec’s gaze. 

“Listen, could you describe the way to the City? I need to get there,” Alec says. “And if you’ve been, then you’ll know the way, and you can tell me how to get there better than an old map can.”

The man studies him for a moment. “You want to know?”

“More than anything,” Alec says. 

The man beckons him closer, and Alec goes, leaning forward until his face is right up against the bars, and the man leans forward too, and just as Alec thinks he’s going to whisper the answer in Alec’s ear, the man grips his chin and kisses him firmly on the mouth. 

The kiss lasts for longer than it should, but only because Alec simply melts into it. And then the guards are hauling the man back, and Alec stands, stunned, with his hand raised to his lips. 

“Incentive, darling, for you to get me the hell out of here,” the man calls, as he’s dragged backwards. “There’s much more where that came from.”

He puts up a pretty good fight, but Alec watches, wide-eyed, as the man is eventually hauled out of the cell and through the door. Izzy rushes to his side and starts fussing, but there’s a grin on her face that says she finds part of this amusing, at least. 

“You’re just smug because he didn’t recognise you,” Alec says, batting her hands away. He wheels around and marches over to Raphael, who’s standing near the far doors leading out of the prison. How he isn’t melting in his suit is beyond Alec, but he has much more pressing matters to attend to. 

“That man, where are they taking him?” Alec demands. “And what’s his name?”

“They're taking him to be hanged,” Raphael says succinctly. “And his name is Magnus Bane.”


	2. A Warning

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Ah, so you _are_ mad at me,” Magnus says, tutting as he rifles through his bag. “About that kiss we shared.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The next chapter should have a little more action, if I remember the film correctly. I just left it here because I wasn't sure whether I wanted to swap POV's or not. Thank you so much for the response to the last chapter, you're all so lovely! And I hope you enjoy this :)

“I don’t think he’s going to show up,” Alec says. He’s leaning against his suitcase, watching people board the ships all around them, carrying cargo up the ramps. Some are standing in the little shade provided by the towering boats, and the rest are wilting in the heat. At least it’s a dry heat. 

Izzy leans away from a cloud of dust kicked up by a passing wagon. Her floppy hat covers most of her face, so she tilts her head up to look at Alec, her frown very pronounced. 

“He will,” she says confidently. “I’m sure he’ll keep his word. Plus, you did get him out of being hanged, and out of jail, so he owes you.”

“I had to promise Raphael a lot of money to get him to set Bane free, plus a large portion of the treasure, if we find any,” Alec says. “So this man better be worth it. But I don’t think he’s going to show, Izzy. I’m not sure I liked him.”

“You seemed to like his mouth well enough,” Izzy says, smirking. “Or was it his tongue?”

“There was no tongue,” Alec says defensively, crossing his arms over his chest. “And that, that right there is why I don't like him. I mean, you don’t just go around kissing random strangers! And he was strange and rude and a scoundrel, basically."

“Sounds like my kind of man,” Magnus Bane says, hopping down from a passing wagon. “Perhaps you could introduce me one day?”

Alec stutters at the sight of him. Magnus steps forward, dressed in a smart, pressed suit, his hair carefully brushed and only a little dusty. There’s something dark smudged around his glittering eyes, giving him a calculating, sultry look. 

“You’re here,” Alec says, after a moment of trying to force  _ any  _ kind of language out of his mouth. 

Magnus raises his eyebrows, an amused smile playing around his mouth. “Well would you look at that, so I am. Did you have doubts, Mr Lightwood?”

“A few, but I told him not to worry,” Izzy says, sticking her hand out smartly. “I had complete faith in you.”

“You’ll forgive me if I pass on the offer, ma’am.” Magnus nods at her hand. “I wouldn’t want anything else of mine to go missing. I may be a bit of a fool when I’m drunk, but I’m not stupid, and I remember a face well enough.”

Izzy lowers her hand, her eyes a little wider and her cheeks a little redder. Alec rolls his eyes and steps forward. 

“Look, Mr Bane, I’m glad you showed up, I really am, but can you guarantee that this is genuine? That we can actually find this place? Because I’m warning you now, if this is all some kind of a joke, then--”

“You’re warning me?” Magnus arches an eyebrow, stepping forward as well to meet Alec mid-way. He raises a finger to Alec’s lips to cut off his protest, and Alec stiffens, biting down on his lip. “Sir, this is genuine enough that my garrison decided to march into Egypt to find Hamunaptra, without orders, and when we arrived, the only things waiting for us were a lot of sand, and even more blood. Please, don't ever question my genuinity.”

He draws back, hand falling back to his sides. “I am not a liar, and I keep my word. I will lead you to Hamunaptra, but you won’t find what you desire there. Now, allow me to get your bags for you.”

Alec is too stunned to do more than step aside as Magnus easily takes both his and Izzy’s suitcases, along with his own, and strides up the ramp. Alec’s eyes flit to the thick muscles of his arms, and he swallows. 

“Mmm, yes, a complete scoundrel, I agree with your assessment,” Izzy murmurs, shifting closer to nudge him in the side. “Although, I can see why you liked his tongue. He certainly knows how to use it, doesn’t he?”

Alec swats at her irritably. “You’re awful.”

“And you’re  _ obvious _ .” Izzy pats him consolingly on the shoulder, and then turns to follow Magnus, only to grind to a halt at the sight of Raphael. Gold glitters at his neck, and he adjusts his cuffs as Alec swears and sighs. 

“What a warm welcome,” Raphael says. “I’m touched.”

“What the hell are you doing here?”

“I made an investment, and I intend to protect it,” Raphael says. Rolling his eyes. “I would have thought that was obvious, but clearly you’re too busy drooling over Bane to see that.”

Something about his tone strikes Alec as odd, and he frowns. “Do you know him? Beyond being his jailer, I mean?”

“Oh, he knows me,” Magnus says, as he strolls back down the ramp. “Of course, I think I may have read our relationship incorrectly, considering he almost allowed me to die at the hands of an executioner who clearly hadn’t bathed in more than a week.”

“I would have gotten you out,” Raphael objects, glowering at him. “I had a plan, I just hadn’t put it in place yet. And I don't think the hygiene habits of the person about to execute you are what matters in that situation.”

“I had a rope around my neck,” Magnus says incredulously. “Exactly when were you planning on the grand rescue? Or were you going to bust me out of my coffin and just call it too little, too late?” 

He looks almost delighted by Raphael’s protests, like he finds them endearing, and Alec watches as he folds his arms over his chest and watches Raphael. Raphael stops speaking abruptly and rolls his neck, teeth gritted behind the tense line of his lips. He refuses to speak further, marching past Magnus and up onto the ship. 

“Don't mind him,” Magnus says. “He’s a little moody in the morning.”

He disappears too, and Izzy sighs, before following them. Alec is left at the bottom of the ramp, with the gnawing feeling that something big is about to happen. 

And yet all he can really think about, is why the hell he had to pay Raphael so much money if the bastard was going to release Magnus anyway?

*

A bag slams down on the table, jolting Alec out of his book. He wheezes in shock, and then glares up at the man standing in the square of lamplight. Magnus grins down at him unapologetically. 

“My apologies,” Magnus says, fiddling with a tricky button on his jacket. 

Alec lifts the book higher. He’s not quite sure why he’s ignoring Magnus, other than the fact that Magnus makes him feel something strange and unfamiliar, and he would rather swim the deepest depths of denial than admit what the feeling is. He glances around for someone to distract him, but Izzy is inside the ship, gambling with the other passengers, and the only other people on the ship are all inside too, enjoying the warmth and merry music. 

“Are you mad at me?” Magnus inquires, still standing in the light streaming onto the deck, which is shadowed only by an awning. There’s a sliver of moonlight visible through the railings, where it bounces off the ocean waves, but otherwise the place is dark and quiet. Or it _was_ quiet, before Magnus came along.  

“No, I just have better things to do than talk to someone whose manners are, frankly, terrifying,” Alec refutes. He licks the pad of his thumb and flicks a page, despite not having finished the previous paragraph. 

“Ah, so you  _ are  _ mad at me,” Magnus says, tutting as he rifles through his bag. “About that kiss we shared.”

“Oh, is that what you called that? A kiss?” Alec arches an eyebrow. Magnus’s smile disappears, but there’s a glint in his eye that says he’s quite enjoying this. He picks up his bag to rifle through it a tad more vigorously, and a knife slips out and clatters onto the table. 

Alec blinks down at it. It’s pretty standard issue, as far as he can tell, but what he can’t tell, is why it’s here. 

“Do you have an armoury in there?” Alec raises an eyebrow. His glasses are slipping down his nose, and he flushes slightly when he realises that he’s wearing them in front of Magnus. Not that there’s anything special about Magnus, or any particular reason why he shouldn’t see Alec’s ridiculous glasses, but still. He tries to be subtle about slipping them off and pocketing them, and he’s pretty sure that he mostly fails, but luckily Magnus is busy putting the knife back inside the bag. 

“It doesn’t hurt to be prepared,” Magnus murmurs. He sits down on the opposite side of the table, his foot brushing against Alec’s, and it takes all he has not to jerk away in surprise. Or press closer. 

“Prepared for what exactly?” Alec asks, frowning. Magnus looks intense, shadowed, and he pulls a gun from the bag and checks the safety, unrolling a coil of bullets. 

“I told you, you won’t find what you desire out there,” Magnus says. “There’s something out there, Mr Lightwood. Something I want to be prepared for. Something under the sand.”

“A book, hopefully,” Alec says drily. “That’s what I’m looking for, anyway. Izzy’s looking for gold, naturally, or jewels, or anything to prove that she’s a successful treasure hunter. I just want the book. Why, what do you think’s waiting for us?”

“I’d say something evil,” Magnus says casually, and Alec blinks at him in surprise, mouth parting. “Hamunaptra is cursed. At least, that’s what people believe. That’s what I believe.”

“Well, I don't,” Alec says. He shakes his head, tapping his fingers against the book. “But I believe the book is buried out there, in the sand. It’s one of the most famous books, the Book of Amun-Ra. It holds all the secret incantations of the old Kingdoms, and it’s the reason I’m here. It was the reason why I chose to study Ancient Egypt in the first place.”

“And I suppose that reason had nothing to do with the fact that people say it was made out of pure gold?” Magnus barely looks up from polishing his gun. Alec feels a small smile cross his face. 

“You know of it?”

“Of course I know of it. It’s a treasure.” He gives Alec a charming smile, putting the gun down with a flourish and picking up another one. “And it may interest you to know that there are others on this ship who have the same intentions as us. Your delightful sister was talking to them inside, and taking all of their money at the same time.”

“They’re looking for Hamunaptra?” Alec peers around the doorway a few feet away, staring into the bright room full of laughing gentlemen and the slap of cards against varnished surfaces. 

“I suppose we’ll just have to get to it first,” Magnus says softly, and Alec snaps his gaze back to him. He feels his cheeks heat up under that intense stare. There’s something very intimate about all of this, about the moonlight and the sound of waves lapping against the side of the ship, and the faint music drifting out onto the deck. All of that conspires to make Alec’s mouth work without his permission. 

“Why exactly did you kiss me?”

Magnus’s gaze drops to his mouth again. He leans forward, almost like he wants to do it again, and Alec suddenly isn’t sure that he would push him away. But then there’s a thump from behind them, and the moment breaks. 

“I was about to be hanged, Mr Lightwood,” Magnus says, glancing down at his guns. “It seemed like a good idea at the time.”

Alec sets his jaw. There’s disappointment and embarrassment and anger swirling within him, and he hates that he can't just brush it off. He snatches his book off the table, gets up and storms away before he can say something he’ll regret.

Which is why he doesn’t notice the way Magnus gets up, too, and follows the sound of several more thumps across the deck, before reaching in behind a large barrel to drag a man out of the shadows, loaded gun still in his hands. 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yay! Okay, so, please leave a comment if you liked this, I know it's probably a niche audience, but I'm having fun! Really hope you enjoyed it, and come say hello @thealmostrhetoricalquestion on tumblr! Thank you!

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading! Please leave a comment/kudos if you enjoyed the fic, I'd love to know what you thought, and come say hey @thealmostrhetoricalquestion on tumblr :) Thank you!


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